32 - Blow Your Top

[godsoffortune]

Who: Everyone!
What: A volcano eruption threatens the Western District
When: Jan 14 - 16
Where: The Western District of the Heavens
Summary: The Western District volcano is erupting again, endangering nearby temples and sending ash sprinkling down across the Heavens. Is it natural, or another attack? Those who dare climb the volcano can find out.






Earthquake Warning

On the morning of the 14th, an earthquake rattles windows throughout the Heavens. It's not strong enough to knock down buildings -- unless they're about to fall down anyway, like some of the older abandoned temples -- but it's strong enough to knock things off shelves and startle any late sleepers out of bed.

After the earthquake, strange sights abound around the Heavens. The poetic koi are swimming in organized schools in all of the canals, heading upstream towards the east. Springs of pure water burst out in some areas, and in others, normal springs or fountains have gone temporarily dry. Blue and green lights bob and weave across the landscape.

Falling Rock

The volcano begins erupting with a roar and a bright scarlet glow on the horizon. Ash and bits of rock fall across the Western district, and may even reach into the Southwest, Northwest and southern Central districts. Volcanic glass fibers that look like golden hair collect on trees, fences and buildings.

Trails and fountains of lava are also erupting from freshly opened fissures and wending down the sides of the volcano. Gods and shinki who live in the Western District are going to need some help clearing ash and glass from their roofs, trying to re-route lava flows (the good news is, if you cool one side down enough, you can turn them! the bad news is, that takes a lot of work) or just offering them a spare room to stay until things calm down.

Swamp Gas

It's not just lava and springwater erupting from mysterious new crevasses -- and it's not just mundane volcanic gases, either. Divine volcanic vents are blowing mind-altering fumes all over the Heavens. Anywhere across the Far Shore, but especially as characters get closer to the volcano, they may experience one or more of the following effects:

• Confusion
• Intense emotions
• Anger and irritability
• Impulsive behavior, loss of emotional control
• Hallucinations
• Unusually clear insight into other people and situations
• Coughing, eye and throat irritation, difficulty breathing
• Irresistible impulses to speak in poetry

Most symptoms will clear up after a few hours in fresh air, and all of them will be gone within 48 hours of the last volcano gas exposure.

Mountain Climbing

Natural disasters don't just happen like this in the Heavens... do they? Amaterasu's white-robed shinki are convinced that something is wrong, and they're organizing into search parties to go up the mountain and seek out the cause of this eruption. New and old gods and shinki are welcome to join them, or form their own groups. All of the hazards -- tremors, lava, ash, and volcanic gas -- will get worse as characters ascend the volcano. Strange little spirit flames, in shades of red and blue, dance on the rocks, dazzling, confusing and threatening to singe interlopers.

And there's someone up here, too. A mysterious figure with glowing red eyes is keeping watch on the intruders and vanishing behind boulders whenever someone turns his way. He won't let anyone traveling with one of the white-robed shinki get too close, but solitary gods or shinki might manage to lure him into conversation, if they try....

OOC: Please comment to the 'NPC REQUEST' thread below in order to talk to the mysterious figure on the volcano.

Those climbing the volcano will have a chance to battle the mysterious figure should their characters choose to do so. If you're interested in a fight, please comment to the 'NPC FIGHT' thread below before the top-level is posted. A top-level for the fight will go up on IC Jan 16/OOC Sept 4.

In Summary:

• Don't get rattled
• Help out the Western District with their volcano problem
• Watch out for volcanic gases
• Find out who's behind the eruption
• Have fun~

Comments

[reformedsinner]

Frankly, I think you're right.

[How often do things turn out not to be some kind of arcane attack on the Heavens? Not often enough, that's how.

Hakkai shakes his head.]

Stay on guard, then. It's very troublesome getting kidnapped.

[redotiertwo]

I feel like they wouldn't have opened with a volcano if it was a kidnapping, but that's just me. [Maybe they're just extra as hell, or felt like it'd draw attention away from something else.]

I would like to know what exactly the fuck is going on this time, though, so mark that one down for once we've sorted shit out down here.

[reformedsinner]

[Cheerfully:] Perhaps it's meant to be a human sacrifice?

-- If so, we're both safe!

[redotiertwo]

I mean, if we're going the whole existential nine yards, does anyone here count as a human anymore.

[Deep existential questions power hour, with your host, "literal doomed timeline alternate" Davesprite.

[reformedsinner]

[Deep existential questions indeed. Hakkai looks thoughtful.]

No, probably not. Of course, I haven't been for a while.

[redotiertwo]

Well, yeah, same hat, but that's rarer here than I would've expected considering the entire heavenly deal.

[Make humans a different class of being, that can't possibly go wrong.]

[reformedsinner]

It really is, isn't it? Of course, it seems that the only kinds of intelligent living beings in this world are humans. They're short on youkai, and they're short on sprites.

[He shrugs, smile quirking up on one side.]

So perhaps it's not so odd that it's mostly human souls that they drag in after all.

[redotiertwo]

I'm kinda surprised they don't have youkai, honestly, considering. You know. [Makes general hand gesture towards the Heavens. If they have gods and spirits, surely they have demons and other kinds of malicious beings that aren't just mindless like ayakashi.]

You'd think if they're dragging from random worlds in the greater multiversal soup, they'd crack gold on more non-humans, they can't be the dominant species in that fucking many universes that aren't relying on cheap shitty special effects to populate them.

[He may be sniping at old space movies...]

[reformedsinner]

Perhaps not the kind of youkai that exist in my world. Most of what would have that name here appears to be ayakashi.

- as for how we were the ones that were chosen, I'm afraid I still haven't spotted any common threads. More of us seem to come from worlds like this one than would make sense from a random selection, though.

[He pauses, and adds:] ... Why would special effects make for more humans?

[redotiertwo]

Yeah, that's probably just a world weirdness thing, I guess. [Davesprite is kind of grateful he doesn't appear to come from a background that would make anything here more confusing, because it really doesn't need help with that.

Passing by the serious part of that response, Davesprite chooses to focus on the special effects part, because of course he does.] I'm talking about like, the super old classic space movies where they'd paint a ridge onto someone's head with whatever the fuck material and say that was an alien when it's clearly just a human wearing a pointy thing on their forehead.

[reformedsinner]

Ah, those!

[Insomnia Youtube is a vital educational resource. Hakkai laughs merrily.]

Well, to be fair, I look like a human with some special effects....

[And those only when he takes his limiters off.]

[redotiertwo]

You were a human originally anyway, though. So was I, so I can't really act like that discounts anyone from the non-human club, but it kinda seems like "human with some special effects" makes more sense when someone was, you know, human at some point in their life anyway.

[Whereas they could probably be here all day talking about the complexities of alien species that probably shouldn't have even had contact with humans until they were already good and evolved.]

[reformedsinner]

That's a good point. Humans and youkai are even cross-fertile, although, I have to admit, I haven't had enough biology classes to make any educated guesses.

It probably has more to do with magic....

[And the sprite transformation, frankly, seems to have a lot to do with magic. Hakkai shrugs.]

And less to do with imagination.

[redotiertwo]

Do I even want to ask how anyone found that out. [Of course humans would try to fuck the weird demon creatures. Of course. No offense to Hakkai and all.

Davesprite just kind of has to shrug at that, though.] Probably, but I guess this probably isn't the time for serious existential considerations on the nature of ex-humanity.

[reformedsinner]

Is it really a question? [Hakkai raises his eyebrows at Davesprite: after all, human nature being what it is...

... and youkai nature not being very different, of course.]

But I suppose it's not. There's that volcano, after all. [He smiles.] If you and Hajime have any troubles and need a place to stay, I do have room in my temple -- consider the invitation open. In the meantime, I suppose I should be on my way.

[redotiertwo]

Not really, but sometimes I like to pretend I'm naive enough to think it is. [Insert some form of meme about gazing into the abyss here, he guesses.

Hakkai's probably right in that they should be on their respective ways, and Davesprite gives a somewhat lazy, two-fingered salute.] Yeah, I'll see how shit is later. For now I guess I'll keep doing recon and see how bad it's gotten everywhere else.

[reformedsinner]

Call me if anyone needs first aid? [Hakkai nods back at his pile of supplies in the back seat.] You'll probably find them before I will.

[There are some real advantages to flight.]

[redotiertwo]

Yeah, sure, try not to run anyone over in your big pimped dragon ride. [Because clearly that's a joke that needed to be made right now, in this specific situation.

With that said, though, Davesprite waves a hand and starts to ascend back into the smoky sky.]